Here’s a question that came up today.  When is it OK to change your website’s domain name?

The short answer to that question is this:  Don’t change your domain name unless you absolutely can’t avoid it.

Keep these things in mind if you’re considering changing your domain name:

1.  Search engines put a lot of emphasis on old domain names.  They figure if a website has been on the Internet under one domain name for a long time, it must be a serious site.  It doesn’t matter if the domain name has been pointed to different sites, it’s the overall age of the name that’s important.

2.  Search engines don’t care about IP addresses.  If you have two domain names with one domain registrar, the search engines don’t care.  They will still favor the one that has been around longest, even if the IP address of both domain names is the same.

3.  You can have a “default” domain name and other names.  Let’s say you have a domain name that’s been around a long time.  Then, you purchase another domain name that you think will be better for advertising, and contains your keyword phrases, too.

Should you change your site’s name to the one that uses your keywords and is easier to remember than your old one?  Not really.  You can leave your original name as the “default” domain name.  And, you can direct your new name to the same website.

In your advertising, you can use the new domain name.  When a visitor arrives at your site, if they look at the address bar on your site, they’ll see your default domain name.  But, I don’t belive that your site visitors will spend any time looking at their address bar, and if they do, they’ll spend even less time wondering why the name is different than the one they used to reach the site.

4.  You should do your real estate website’s SEO using your default domain name.  If you are building links to your site, for example, use your site’s default domain name for the links.

5.  Don’t go overboard with directing domain names at your website.  The search engines vaguely state that you shouldn’t have “too many” domain names pointed at one site.  So, don’t buy 15 different names and direct them all to the same place. 

6.  Use only those domain names that get you something.  If you have a domain name you will use in advertising, or if you have YOUR-NAME.com for those prospects who can only remember your name, then direct them at your website.  But, unless you have a specific purpose for a domain name, just leave it alone.

7.  Direct domain names properly.  Your default domain name is the one that directs to your site as its original designation.  Any other domain names should be directed to the site using a 301 redirect.  A 301 redirect tells the search engines that the domain is permanently directed at your website.  Any other type of a redirect will just confuse the search engines and reduce your chances at getting ranked.

Any other questions about domain names?  Leave a comment and I’ll answer questions in an upcoming post!